Dual-system component-based industrial robot controller

ABSTRACT

A dual system component-based industrial robot controller having a standard operating system, a real-time operating system, a route management module, a soft bus, a driver management module, a motion control module, a PLC module, an IO module, a teach pendent interface module and a protocol stack module. The controller employs a component-based structure and the components are operated respectively under a non real-time standard operating system and a real-time operating system, and supports distributed processing. The communications and function calls among the components are carried out by the route management module and the soft bus. The components in communication are managed through the route management module. The driver management module provides communications among other modules with a consistent interface which accords to the DS402 standard, and a servo driver that accords to this interface standard can be readily integrated into the controller. A user can develop function module components and add the same to the system, and the open-type interface of the controller enables the controller to connect hardware without limitations.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an industrial robot controller. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to a dual systemcomponent-based industrial robot controller.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the development history of robot controller, based on the controlarchitecture, robot controllers can be classified into differentcategories, i.e. a robot controller can be in a single CPU structure, acentralized control architecture, a two-level CPU structure, amaster-slave control architecture or a multiple CPU distributed controlstructure, etc. The first two structures were developed in the earlierstage of the development of computer technology, and they were realizedby employing microprocessor units wherein the computing power of the CPUis not sufficiently powerful. The third structure generally applied theform of PC plus DSP-based motion control card (for example, PMAC card orTrio board card) which were respectively used to execute the uppercomputer programs and the motion control programs.

However, these solutions have some similar problems, i.e. theirstructures being relatively complicated, the programming beingdifficult, and the system computing power being weak, which bringdifficulties in carrying out complicated calculations like dynamiccontrol of a robot; the connection of the software and the hardwarebeing relatively close; the wiring being complex, and the debugging andmaintenance of the system being difficult, which result in an unreliablesystem. Furthermore, with the increase of targets to be controlled, thecontrol of targets would become extremely difficult. Where a coordinatedcontrol of more axes is required, a significant adjustment of the entirestructure would be needed, which would result in an increase of costs.

The latest open architecture is described, for example, in Chinesepatent application CN1424649A titled “Open architecture robotcontroller”. Although the open controllers were developed using areal-time system on a PC, such controllers are basically of anarchitecture having levels and each of the levels is employed to carryout a predetermined function. Where a new function is required, thearchitecture of the system is generally required to be modified and thisis labor consuming.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is toovercome the flaws of the prior art, and provide a dual systemcomponent-based industrial robot controller. By employing the“component-based” structure and the base formed by a router manager anda soft bus for interconnection of the components, an open architectureis provided.

The dual system component-based industrial robot controller of thepresent invention comprises: a standard operating system, a real-timeoperating system, a route management module, a soft bus, a drivermanagement module, a motion control module, a PLC module (programmablecontroller module), an IO module, a teach pendant interface module and aprotocol stack module, characterized in that:

the standard operating system and the real-time operating system beingthe base platform for the operation of all of the component modules, theteach pendant interface module, the protocol stack module and the IOmodule being operated under the standard operating system, while the PLCmodule, the motion control module, the driver management module and theroute management module being operated under the real-time operatingsystem;

the soft bus being a customized Ethernet protocol which launchesrequests and communications among the modules using the net addressesand function IDs, the route management module and the soft bus workingtogether to connect other real-time and non real-time operated modules;

the route management module being employed to perform message routingand control authority judgement between different function modules andmaintain the public data source of the system, the function modules(i.e. the driver management module, the motion control module, the PLCmodule, the IO module, the teach pendent interface module and theprotocol stack module) each having an interface that accords with therules of the soft bus protocol, when interactions of the modules beingrequired, the data being passed to the soft bus via the interfaces andfinally arriving at the route management module, the route managementmodule conducting an analysis on such requests and replies, and afterjudgement, corresponding data area being operated and the routemanagement module sending orders or replies to the related modules;

the driver management module (bus management module) managing thefieldbus protocols, the low level thereof being various fieldbus boardcards or the drivers of the protocol stack, the driver management moduleabstracting over the various fieldbus board cards or the drivers of theprotocol stack, and providing therein a memory area for mapping the dataabstracted from the buses, when access of other function modules to thedevices connected to the fieldbus being required, the driver managementmodule providing an identical abstract interface for the access andpassing therein the access to the correct driver;

the motion control module performing trajectory planning and control ofthe robot, the motion control module being executed periodically, duringeach period, the motion control module reading the position data of theaxes of the robot and calculating the new position command data withtrajectory planning algorithm and updating the data, the data beingmaintained by the route management module and finally passed to thedriver management module from which the data being passed to thecorresponding hardware;

the IO module and the motion control module being operated at the samelevel and primarily for maintaining the IO data of the system andproviding the high level programs with the IO information in the system;when the high level programs having access to the IO, they being passedto the route management module via the IO module, and then passed todriver management module by the route management module, and finallysent to the corresponding hardware via the driver;

the teach pendent interface module, the protocol stack module and thePLC module being operated at the same level and being the high levelprograms of the IO module and the motion control module, the PLC modulebeing operated under the real-time system, while the teach pendentinterface module, the protocol stack module being operated under the nonreal-time system.

The dual system component-based industrial robot controller of thepresent invention employs a component-based architecture. Thus, thecontroller is of an open-type structure which can be added withuser-developed function module components according to predeterminedrules. Furthermore, the open-type interface of the controller enablesthe controller to connect hardware without limitations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the dual systemcomponent-based industrial robot controller of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will be further described by referring to thedrawing and the embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, The dual system component-based industrial robotcontroller of the present invention comprises: a standard operatingsystem 1, a real-time operating system 2, a route management module 3, asoft bus 4, a driver management module 5, a motion control module 6, aPLC module 7, an IO module 8, a teach pendant interface module(including functions of teach & replay) 9, and a protocol stack module10.

The standard operating system 1 and the real-time operating system 2 arethe base platform for the operations of all of the component modules.The teach pendant interface module 9, the protocol stack module 10 andthe IO module 8 are operated under the standard operating system 1,while the PLC module 7, the motion control module 6, the drivermanagement module 5 and the route management module 3 are operated underthe real-time operating system.

The soft bus 4 is a customized Ethernet protocol which launches requestsand communications among the modules using the net addresses andfunction IDs. The route management module 3 is a manager in the systemand it works along with the soft bus 4 to connect other real-time andnon real-time operated modules.

The route management module 3 is employed to perform message routing andcontrol authority judgement between different function modules andmaintain the public data source of the system. In practice, the routemanagement module 3 provides a shared memory area in the system memoryfor the saving of the global data. The accessible global data ofdifferent function modules are mapped to different corresponding memorysections, which represent the address spaces of various functionmodules. The data interactions and function calls among differentfunction modules will be finalized as accesses to these global data, andall the accessions to these data will be judged and selected by theroute management module 3. The function modules each have an interfacethat accords with the rules of the soft bus 4 protocol, and wheninteractions of the modules are required, the data is passed to the softbus 4 via the interfaces and finally arrives at the route managementmodule 3. The route management module 3 will conduct an analysis on suchrequests and replies, and after judgement, the corresponding data areawill be operated and the route management module will send orders orreplies to the related function modules.

The combination of the soft bus 4 and the route management module 3enables the components to be distributed in different devices in anetwork, and when the components of different devices are incommunication, the route management module will determine whether thecomponent is a local component or a remote component. In case that thecomponent is a remote component, the protocol data passed from the softbus will be packed as an Ethernet data packet, and the data packet willthe passed to the target device via the network devices.

The driver management module 5 manages the fieldbus and is in arelatively low level of the function modules. The lower level componentsof the driver management module 5 are various fieldbus board cards ordrivers of the protocol stack, such as CanOpen, EtherCAT and ProfiDrive,etc. The driver management module 5 abstracts over the drivers, andprovides therein a memory area for mapping the data abstracted from thebuses. When an access of other function modules (for example, the IOmodule 8 or the motion control module 6) to the devices (for example, anIO slave station or a server) connected to the fieldbus is required, thedriver management module 5 will provide an identical abstract interfacefor the access to different fieldbuses and pass therein the access tothe correct driver.

The motion control module 6 performs trajectory planning and control ofthe robot. The motion control module is executed periodically, duringeach period, the motion control module 6 reads the position data of theaxes of the robot and calculates the new position command data inaccordance with a corresponding algorithm, and then updates the data.The data is maintained by the route management module 3 and finallypassed to the driver management module 5 from which the data is passedto the corresponding hardware.

The IO module 8 and the motion control module 6 are operated at the samelevel and primarily for maintaining the IO data of the system, andprovide the high level programs with the IO information in the system;when the high level programs have access to the IO, it is passed to theroute management module 3 via the IO module 8, and then passed to drivermanagement module 5 by the route management module 3, and finally passedto the corresponding hardware via the driver.

The teach pendent interface module 9, the protocol stack 10 and the PLCmodule 7 are operated at the same level and are the high level programsof the IO module 8 and the motion control module 6 and implementaccesses to these low level module functions. The PLC module 7 isoperated under the real-time system, while the teach pendent interfacemodule 9 and the protocol stack module 10 are operated under the nonreal-time system.

This component-based design controller makes the functions of thecontroller not limited to those as described above. A user can developfunction module components and add the same to the controller accordingto predetermined rules. Furthermore, the open-type interface of thecontroller enables the controller to connect hardware withoutlimitations.

What is claimed is:
 1. A dual system component-based industrial robotcontroller of the present invention comprises: a standard operatingsystem, a real-time operating system, a route management module, a softbus, a driver management module, a motion control module, a PLC module,an IO module, a teach pendent interface module and a protocol stackmodule, wherein the standard operating system and the real-timeoperating system being a base platform for the operation of all of thecomponent modules, the teach pendent interface module, the protocolstack module and the IO module being operated under the standardoperating system, while the PLC module, the motion control module, thedriver management module and the route management module being operatedunder the real-time operating system; the soft bus being a customizedEthernet protocol which launches requests and communications among themodules using net addresses and function IDs, the route managementmodule and the soft bus working together to connect other real-time andnon real-time operated modules; the route management module beingemployed to perform message routing and control authority judgementbetween different function modules and maintain a public data source ofthe system, wherein function modules comprising the driver managementmodule, the motion control module, the PLC module, the IO module, theteach pendent interface module and the protocol stack module each havingan interface that accords with the rules of the soft bus protocol, wheninteractions of the modules being required, the data being passed to thesoft bus via the interfaces and finally arriving at the route managementmodule, the route management module conducting an analysis on suchrequests and replies, and after judgement, corresponding data area beingoperated and the route management module sending orders or replies tothe related modules; the driver management module (bus managementmodule) managing a fieldbus, a low level thereof being various fieldbusboard cards or drivers of the protocol stack, the driver managementmodule abstracting over the various fieldbus board cards or the driversof the protocol stack, and providing therein a memory area for mappingthe data abstracted from the buses, when access of other functionmodules to the devices connected to the fieldbus being required, thedriver management module providing an identical abstract interface forthe access and passing therein the access to the correct driver; themotion control module performing trajectory planning and control of therobot, the motion control module being executed periodically, duringeach period, the motion control module reading the position data of theaxes of the robot and calculating a new position command data withtrajectory planning algorithm and updating the data, the data beingmaintained by the route management module and finally passed to thedriver management module from which the data being passed to thecorresponding hardware; the IO module and the motion control modulebeing operated at the same level primarily for maintaining IO data ofthe system and providing high level programs with common existing accessto the IO data in the system; when the high level programs having accessto the IO, they being passed to the route management module via the IOmodule, and then passed to driver management module by the routemanagement module, and finally sent to the corresponding hardware viathe driver; the teach pendent interface module, the protocol stackmodule and the PLC module being operated at the same level and being thehigh level programs of the IO module and the motion control module, thePLC module being operated under the real-time system, while the teachpendent interface module, the protocol stack module being operated undernon the real-time system.